Norgrove charity facing challenges as Taliban tightens grip on Afghanistan

The Lewis-based charity which exists to help women and children in Afghanistan is faced with daunting new challenges after the Taliban government introduced further harsh restrictions on female education.
By Brian Wilson
Published 7th Jan 2023, 06:39 GMT
Updated 7th Jan 2023, 06:39 GMT
John and Lorna Norgrove, who head the foundation, are continuing to assist women in Afghanistan, but it's becoming increasingly challenging.John and Lorna Norgrove, who head the foundation, are continuing to assist women in Afghanistan, but it's becoming increasingly challenging.
John and Lorna Norgrove, who head the foundation, are continuing to assist women in Afghanistan, but it's becoming increasingly challenging.

“Our scholarship students can no longer attend university”, said John Norgrove, co-founder with his wife Lorna of the Linda Norgrove Foundation which commemorates their daughter, an aid worker who died in Afghanistan.

The Foundation currently supports 94 young women studying medicine and another 54 studying a wide range of subjects from nursing to computer science. The students are paid living allowances of $300 twice a year.

John said: “It’s unclear how the further education ban for women will change. For instance medical students might be OK but not engineering students. Whilst the situation is so fluid, we have decided to give the women their living allowance to cover the next six months even though they will not be attending their classes.

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“We have paid for a German online educational app, Lecturio, which has a full range of lectures and courses for medical students which will allow them to continue studying at home.

“It may be that we investigate educating them in an adjoining country, especially those who are near to the end of their courses. However, that is more expensive and there are all sorts of passport and visa issues,.

“We are a small organisation and it would be bound to be fraught with difficulties.We may try and re-float the idea of bringing 20 to the UK where all medical schools in Scotland have offered places but where we couldn’t get any movement on providing visas”.

John explained: “The women themselves are heartbroken. A typical case is a woman we’ve been helping for four years and was just about to sit her final exams. She has now written to advise that her parents have told her they are going to arrange a marriage because they can’t afford to keep her any longer.

“She sent videos of Taliban in Kandahar chasing demonstrators and then catching a woman and setting about her with sticks, kicking and beating her savagely. We’re getting many distraught e-mails but what can we do?”.

The Taliban have also recently banned women from working for NGOs, the international organisations which bring aid to the country. However, John said that since the Foundation is not registered as an NGO they are continuing to operate “under the radar” through their two employees.

“We leave it to them to manage the risk because they have a much better idea than us of where the risks are”.

On the wider front, winter conditions in Afghanistan are dire. John Norgrove said: “Many families are near starving and freezing. We are starting to focus more now on providing food parcels, and also stoves and wood, to families which are headed by women. “They can’t work, it’s difficult for them to travel around, there’s no state help, their situation is desperate”.

The foundation - which pledges that “every penny donated gets to Afghanistan” - can be contacted through www.lindanorgrovefoundation.org or at 3 Mangersta, Uig, Isle of Lewis HS29EY.